North Fork Hostel and Square Peg Ranch
Polebridge, Montana

Kerosene and propane lights brighten your nights (there's no electricity on Polebridge). The hostel is heated during the winter months by old-fashioned wood stoves. A propane cooking range and refrigerators are on hand to make your food preparation easier after you have spent an exciting day exploring this vast wonderland.Although the area is off the power grid, the hostel has a cordless phone, a fax machine and a computer operated on huge storage batteries. Camcorder and digital camera batteries batteries may be recharged at the hostel. A laptop computer is available for email.

Facilities include twelve bunks for men and six bunks for women, couples accommodations, washrooms with hot showers, a six-foot clawfoot bathtub, a large downstairs shared living room, a warm and pleasant, fully-equipped community kitchen and the spiffiest outhouses on the North Fork. (The interior art is interesting -- look for John's college diploma.)

Behind the hostel are small living units for family rental. (Some of them have interesting names like the "Goat Chalet.") These cabins are bedrooms with a double bed or a queen bed and a day-couch bed. Also, there are two log homes for rent up the road at the Square Peg Ranch.

Don't forget to bring linen or sleeping bags, flashlights and food. Clean sheets can be rented at the hostel.